Third U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Figure Part Of Syrian Opposition Council

The Middle East Forum (MEF) has identified a third individual tied to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood that is also a part of the Syrian National Council (SNC), a group described on its website as ” …a council that includes competent national figures to serve as a political umbrella for the Syrian Revolution in the international arena and support the just cause of the Syrian people, who yearn to be liberated from tyranny and create a civil democratic state.” According to the MEF report:

CAIR has its own man in the SNC: Yaser Tabbara, a founding member of the Syrian resistance group. After helping launch CAIR’s Chicago office, Tabbara served as its executive director until 2006; he currently sits on its board. Tabbara’s time at the helm of CAIR-Chicago was marked by multiple controversies. He played a major role in the successful drive to get Thomas Klocek dismissed from his post as an adjunct professor at DePaul University, following an out-of-classroom argument in which Klocek defended Israel against the smears of pro-Palestinian students. Tabbara also led CAIR-Chicago’s efforts to circle the Islamist wagons when the family of an American teenager murdered by Hamas sued U.S. charities believed to fund such terrorists. He called the trial a ‘lynching and a mockery of justice,’ but a jury awarded the plaintiffs $156 million. Around the same period, the FBI accused CAIR-Chicago of having ‘compromised or impeded’ an investigation into an alleged hate crime by ignoring the bureau’s request not to issue a premature press release about it.”

Documents released in the Holy Land Trial have revealed that the founders and current leaders of CAIR were part of the Palestine Committee of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as identifying the organization itself as being part of the US. Brotherhood. A recent post discussed an interview with the Deputy leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in which he confirms a relationship between his organization and CAIR. Investigative research posted on GMBDW had determined that CAIR had it origins in the U.S. Hamas infrastructure and CAIR and its leaders have a long history of defending almost all individuals accused of terrorism by the US. government, frequently calling such prosecutions a “war on Islam.” In 2009, a US federal judge ruled “The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas.”

Previous posts have noted that the SNC includes at least two known members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood- Louay Safi, a leader in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Najib Ghadbian, a board member of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID). The relationship between the SNC and Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi should also be noted.

In 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported on moves by the U.S. Government to reach closer relations with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.

For a comprehensive account of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in 2006, go here.